From Degree to Doing: Creative Professionals Panel

Our panel will give students insights into the current landscape, how to get started, and how to integrate creativity into their professional lives.

The panel will be followed by a Q&A and networking session. Light refreshments will be served.

About the Speakers

Elizabeth Barker is currently the Data and Digital Marketing Specialist at Orca Book Publishers. She started with a B.A.H in English Language and Literature and Psychology from Queen's University and somehow ended up as a verbose metadata nerd in Canada's Publishing industry. Like many in the book world, her focus is on helping the industry shift away from "'gatekeeping', to 'space-making'" (a catchy phrase that she picked up during her time working at BookNet Canada). Elizabeth's aim is to use data as the means to foster authentic representation and discoverability throughout the supply chain. Centred in children's publishing, she participates in many bibliographic groups to help set standards and Best Practices—but mostly spends her time deep in ONIX records.

Zack Kotzer is a local writer, editor and former carny. Currently he is the editor in chief of FUNLAND, a queer gaming zine exploring the fringes of the video world. His work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Motherboard and The Atlantic.

Pacinthe Mattar is an independent journalist, writer and producer. She is the 2025 St. Clair Balfour Journalism Fellow at Massey College. Born in Egypt and raised between Canada, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E, she spent a decade at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producing for national TV and radio programmes. She received a National Magazine Award for her 2020 article "Objectivity Is A Privilege Afforded to White Journalists.” She was the 2022 Martin Wise Goodman Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and the 2023 Asper Fellow in Media at Western University. In 2024, she delivered her public lecture "Objectivity, Press Freedom and the Palestine Exception" at Carleton University.

Amanda Merpaw is English Program Director at Poetry in Voice/Les voix de la poésie. A writer, editor, and educator, she holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English literature, as well as a master’s degree in teaching. She has over a decade of experience teaching and holding leadership positions in both educational and nonprofit environments, with expertise in arts & heritage education, equity-based pedagogies, and digital educational content. As a poet, Amanda’s work has appeared in a variety of digital and print publications, and as an editor, she has held editorial roles at diverse literary magazines and presses.

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Host or Publisher Centre for Creativity